Page 32 of Legendary

“Huh?”

He rolled his eyes, getting up from the bed. “Dani.”

I licked my lips, thinking of how I wanted to answer his question. “I don’t know, but keep your shit together, she really did just clean me up and make sure I was fine.”

“But why?”

“Fuck, Reese, I don’t know. Because she’s a decent person.”

My best friend narrowed his eyes at me and scrunched his mouth up to the side. “She didn’t try to use her feminine wiles on you, did she? Her demonic compulsion and shit.”

I let out a loud groan, placing my face in my hands, careful of my healing cheek and gave him a muffled answer. “Nope, no feminine wiles.” Not like I would have minded if she did. She really didn’t have to do much for me to be completely beguiled by her. “And no demon compulsion.”

“Good, because we don’t need to be set back by your one-night stand. We are in demon town right now and its fucking with my head.”

Hishead?

My own head throbbed at the fact that Reese knew nothing about what I actually felt. Not to mention the fact that I personally couldn’t put how I felt into a cohesive sentence, but that was beside the point. I had skipped the entire training room sex and told him a summed-up version of that very, very long night in my bedroom. He seemed to be satisfied that it was only the one time and I had moved on. And I had made it out like I had moved on as well, when all I had really done was tuck my feelings away with everything else that I didn’t want to talk about.

I wanted to tell him a great deal of things, if noteverything, but Reese was always a hot head and he tended to jump to conclusions unnecessarily most times. I hated risking setting his mood off. He was fine with Dani for the most part but telling him thatone night standmight not be the best word for what Dani was. That wasn’t something I was ready to face.

“Right. Can we just go to bed?”

Reese nodded, reaching down to pat me on the shoulder. “Oh yeah, sure. Beetee said we can all reconvene in the morning. She has an idea for our next move. Just get some rest, let me know if you need anything.”

I started to unbutton my pants, way too eager to just be in my underwear and passed out underneath the surprisingly soft sheets when I remembered something. “Hey, Reese, can I ask you something?” I shoved off my pants and scooted back gingerly, so I could get under the covers.

He pulled the sheets down from the top of his bed and turned to me. “Sure.”

“When you and Beetee left the room earlier you mentioned her, uh, being a snake.”

Reese turned around so quickly, covering his mouth with one of his hands. He hustled over to my bed with wide hazel eyes. “Oh, my fucking god. Shit was wild!”

I adjusted the sheets around my lap, reaching behind me to fix my pillows. I was missing the number of pillows I slept with at home. “So…she is a snake?”

Reese put both his hands into his hair and yanked at his golden locks. “Fucking wild! I ran over to you to make sure you were fine and then the next time I turn around there was this huge ass fucking snake near me. Nearly shit my pants.”

“So not only does she have a tail, but she’s a whole reptile.” It wasn’t a question, but I was just in shock.

“I guess when she gets super upset or riled up, she just morphs into this huge snake, it was unreal. She said she’s always been able to do it, the tattoo on her back keeps it in check. It definitely made the list of the top ten things I’ll never forget in my life.” His eyes were amazed and full of awe. He sounded like he was a little out of breath even though all he’d been doing was reiterating a story and sitting on my bed.

“You sound like you’re impressed by a demon,” I said skeptically.

Reese waved his hand in my direction, as if dismissing my words. “She’s too cheery to be a demon. Also, I’ve seen her naked and demon or not, I ain’t mad at her.”

I blinked a few times, reaching for my stomach as a small sting of pain startled me when I repositioned myself. “You saw her naked? What the fuck, how long was I out?”

Reese shook his head, laughing. “No, Nick, not like that. When she stopped being a snake, she went back to her normal form, but that form didn’t include clothes.” He wiggled his eyebrows before getting up from mybed and walking back over to his. “Don’t worry the only person in this room who has fucked a demon is still you.”

I sunk back into my pillows and let out a heavy groan. “Alright, I think that’s enough information for me tonight.”

He jumped into his bed and reached over, cutting off his lamp that sat on his end table. “Night. You need anything, just say the word. If you ever feel the need to just leave here in the middle of the night and whisk us back home, then perfect.” I heard him start to get comfortable and eventually I heard nothing at all. Since his lamp was the only thing that flooded the room with light, I was now looking into pure darkness. There were no windows in our room and the silence around me should have been soothing, but it wasn’t. Silence left me with my own thoughts, which was never a good thing nowadays. I closed my eyes and wished for a night of nothing at all.

My thoughts had turned into a scary place and having them as the only thing to occupy me had me staying awake for longer than I wanted. Every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing the same thing. Every. Single. Time.

Jonah and the way he fought beside me, hoping for a different ending. All those angels who weren’t in their right mind and had only violence and murder as their end goals. I saw so much blood, so much pain. I felt the wave of my choices wash over me and land on my chest like a weight I wasn’t strong enough to lift off. My throat felt dry and filled with dust as I woke up. I tried taking in deep breaths, but it ended up shallow and useless. The weight in my chest was thick and I needed to get out of here. I needed to move, leave, remove myself from my own thoughts. I heard chatter coming from outside our room, but it was muffled and the thudding in my head overpowered it.

I blinked into the darkness as I shoved the covers off of myself, feeling too hot and overwhelmed. Jonah’s face appeared and then was gone, causing my vertigo to rage. His face was distorted at times and then I would blink and he was perfectly clear.

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